skip to main content
Caltech

Astronomy Colloquium

Wednesday, February 2, 2022
4:00pm to 5:00pm
Add to Cal
Online Event
Approaching the solar dynamo from unusual angles: M-dwarf stars, polar views, and different dynamo mechanisms
Benjamin Brown, Assistant Professor, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder,

The origins of the solar global-scale magnetic field from dynamo processes remains one of the most important problems in solar physics.  Decades of work have answered some questions, but have also created confusion.  Maybe we need some different angles to approach this problem.  Here I talk about about a few ideas that may, or may not, help us understand our star's magnetism.  We'll learn about major outstanding problems in our understanding of the solar interior.  We'll look at what we can learn from simulations of the Sun and other stars on the lower main-sequence, especially fully-convective M-dwarf stars.  We'll talk a bit about how the poles of the Sun might help us observe "giant cells of convection".  We'll end by briefly thinking about other dynamo mechanisms that may play a role in the Sun.  The magnetorotational instability is of particular importance in the NSSL, and this may influence (or drive) the solar dynamo.

To view this talk via YouTube, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb1880Rn0qkKzIavl-n_7RaMyDOiU9XHm

For more information, please contact Jim Fuller by email at [email protected] or visit http://www.astro.caltech.edu.